Producer inflation drops sharply to 4.9 percent in December 2016

The producer price inflation for December 2016 fell to 4.9 percent from the 11.9 percent in November, the Ghana Statistical Service has stated.

By this, the ex-factory prices of goods and services for all industry increased on average by 4.9 percent in December 2016 relative to the price level recorded in December 2015.

However compared to November 2016, the PPI decreased by 0.6 percent in December 2016.

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 15.6 percent, followed by the Manufacturing sub-sector with 5.5 percent.

The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of -7.0 percent.

“Between November and December 2015, there were high increases in water and electricity tariffs … the increase in water was 67.2 and electricity was 59.2 percent,” Deputy Government Statistician, Anthony Amuzu explained.

The producer inflation rate for the mining and quarrying sector decreased by 3.8 percentage points in December 2016 relative to the rate recorded in November 2016 (19.4%).

Inflation for the manufacturing sector in December 2016 was 0.6 percentage points higher than that of November 2016 (4.9%).

Meanwhile the utilities subsector recorded an inflation of -45.3 percentage points lower compared with that of November 2016 (38.3%).